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#1
17th Dec 2007, 09:47
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| Hello. I am in the process of upgrading my computer at the moment. I have looked around for parts and asked on these forums for advice on hard-drives and graphics cards, but now that I'm so close to finalizing everything I've hit another snag. I was going to buy an Athlon X2 4200 socket 939 along with 2GB Ram, 1950pro, new HDD and an Arctic cooler for the cpu (so I can overclock). However the 4200 is now out of stock and as socket 939 is outdated I don't think they are coming back in stock. Leaving me with two options: 1) I buy the best I can find, which is an X2 3800+. (Ive looked all over the place, dual core 939's are hard to get now) 2) I buy a new motherboard with AM2 socket and remake the whole damn thing. Both options have their pro's and con's. The first one means I can simply buy the cpu, and I'm ready to go. But will it be good enough for todays standards? I will overclock it, and hopefully with the fan it would be by a fair amount, but would it still be good enough? * on a side note, there are two 3800's on Ebuyer.com. One is Manchester core and one is Toledo core. Does this make a difference? * The second one means I will be more up to date, I can buy a better cpu and faster, cheaper RAM. But I will basicly have to start from scratch again and find all new components, and I also think this option will be more expensive. I have a budget of about £250. Currently my system is: ASRock 939S56-M Athlon 64 3200 7300gs 80GB HDD (almost full) Not very big monitor with 1024x756 resolution. My one big question really is would I be able to overclock an X2 3800 enough to make it decent? Or is it simply not powerful enough nowadays? I would like to be running DX9 games on full settings. Oh and one more thing. My mobo takes PC3200 max speed RAM. And I cannot find any 1GB sticks of it anymore for a reasonable price. Think I would be ok with going 4x 512mb sticks? |
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#2
17th Dec 2007, 11:10
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| It's probably not what you want to hear, but I doubt you will notice much of an increase between your 3200 and a 3800 cpu.
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If your budget is £250, why not consider a barebones system and get the most up-to-date spec you can afford, then either sell or salvage bits from your current system to get a decent graphics card, extra HDD etc. Novatech do a decent range ..... see if something here appeals : http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/barebones.html My System: Home Build
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#3
17th Dec 2007, 11:13
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| My 3200 is single core, and the 3800 is dual core, and will also be overclocked. I will take a look at the barebone systems. One problem is though that my parents use this computer aswell so i don't want to mess around with it too much. *EDIT* This one looks ok to me: http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s...tml?BB-X24626M If I do get that. Would I simply need to put my current HDD, buy the x1950pro and new HDD, put them in and I'm all set? |
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#4
17th Dec 2007, 11:30
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| Ok. I've now come up with two options. (again) 1) Buy the barbones in the link and end up with: Athlon X2 4600 2 GB 667Mhz RAM (unknown brand) x1950pro Current 80GB HDD Another 80GB HDD New case Around £265. Or: 2) New motherboard, http://www.ebuyer.com/product/121169 2GB Crucial 667Mhz RAM x1950pro Current 80GB HDD New 80GB HDD Around £250 They are basicly the same except option two I know what the RAM is, I keep the same case and its cheaper. But it means buying all the parts separately. |
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#5
19th Dec 2007, 16:37
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| Quote:
Also, as mentioned on your other thread, you can only have 2 ATA devices on the barebones system, as there is only 1 x ATA Controller, so if you add an existing ATA DVD-ROM Drive, any further drives HDD or Optical will need to be SATA. |
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#6
19th Dec 2007, 16:45
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| Quote:
One other advantage is the Barebones system is installed and tested  |
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#7
20th Dec 2007, 09:34
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| Great cheers. So, If i used a new HDD as the primary, I just connect it to the mobo and use the xp install cd right? If I did this, can I just put my old HDD in the slave slot? will it cause problems as it has xp on it too? I dont want to wipe my old HDD, I'm keeping it as I want to keep all my files. |
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#8
20th Dec 2007, 11:40
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| If you are going for a new Barebones system ..... are you going to be using an existing ATA (IDE) DVD-ROM Drive ?, if so, you will only have one IDE connector left on the ribbon cable, so if you fit a new IDE HDD as a Master for your OS, that's it ..... you will have no room for another IDE HDD . That was the point I was making above. i.e. any new drive then (HDD or Optical) would need to be a SATA drive. Tell me what drives you have already that you intend using and we can take it from there ;) |
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#9
21st Dec 2007, 04:06
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| The new HDD will be SATA, It's ok. I guess I will keep my HDD as the master, and just add a new SATA one as slave. One thing I was thinking though, could I not just buy an external hard-drive? they aren't too expensive and it means I dont have to worry about connections and all that. Is this not recommended? Another questions is, if a mobo says SATAII is it different to SATA? Sorry if it I keep changing my ideas and bringing up more questions, I'm trying to unboggle my mind. Thanks for bearing with me so far  |
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#10
21st Dec 2007, 04:43
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| You could buy an external drive, but IMO it's always better and neater to have an internal drive than an external, as USB is a flakey interface and not as reliable as ATA or SATA ..... also an external drive can be more prone to damage, especially if dropped ! and has extra circuitry and a seperate PSU, which are all prone to failure. SATAII is the evolution of SATAI ...... If a mobo supports SATAII, it is capable of working slightly faster, but is also backward compatible with SATAI. HTH |
